The present invention relates to an apparatus for applying a label one by one to packages filled with eggs or the like and without a cover and are moving along a conveyor belt.
When eggs are sold in the retail stores, for example, it is the general practice that six or twelve eggs are packed in two rows in an egg pack, which is provided with separate compartments for accepting individual eggs to prevent mutual contact to each other. Usually, the acute or pointed end of the egg is placed upward and the obtuse or rounded end is placed on the bottom side.
Automatic packaging machines for eggs have made substantial progress recently, and the automation of retail packaging has been widely propagated in a very short time. Following this trend, there is a demand for automatic application of a label which is to indicate size symbols, name of the producer as well as the date packed and so on into the packages.
However, it is difficult as well as troublesome to mechanize the application of a label into a fixed position of egg packs one by one precisely at a narrow space between two rows of eggs while the packages are being conveyed at a fairly high rate of speed. Accordingly, labels are now attached manually as they have been in the past. In order to solve the problem mentioned above, the present invention comprises a sucking disk connected to a vacuum means and an air valve for removing labels one by one from a label feeder. This invention is disposed between the label feeder arranged in an upper portion and the label-posture adjusting chamber arranged in a lower portion and the sucker disc is freely swingable in a vertical direction. The air valve is opened and closed by the swing motion of the sucking disk, which is controlled by a signal from a sensor detecting the presence of the label inside the label-posture adjusting chamber. The bottom of the label-posture adjusting chamber is opened by detecting the approach of the package.
By such arrangement, labels can be applied one by one precisely onto the packages without covers and filled with eggs or the like and being conveyed at a fairly high rate of speed by the conveyor.
Namely, it is an object of the present invention to apply one label at a time precisely onto the packages.
It is another object of the present invention to correctly adapt to the conveyor speed of the packages.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide an apparatus which is robust in structure and low in cost.